Have a Great 2007!!

This is to wish all readers of the Sutton Council Observer a Successful 2007.

We are now 9th on the Google Page Rankings for the words "Sutton Council" out of 43,000 mentions, so thank you for reading it.

In 2007, I am aiming to improve its readability in a number of ways as well as developing it as a reference tool, without moving away from its relatively straightforward presentation.

It will, however, remain a journal of record and and analysis of all the major public policy issues that impact on Sutton as well as from time to time breaking news stories that go on to feature in other parts of the local media.

Thanks again and have a great 2007.

2007 - Some Key Dates

With no elections this year, it will be a relatively quiet year (unless there is a snap General Election!!), except for the ramifications of the change of Labour Leadership which will feel like a change of government and may herald a burst of announcements which will impact on local government.

January
- Council Budget Consultation
- Rent Setting - formality
- Roundshaw Stock Transfer approved by Council

February
- Council Budget - Strategy Committee Recommendation
- London Health Review announced
- Older People Day Services Review agreed
- Review of Sutton West Site
- Leisure Centre Rebuild Options agreed?

March
- Council Tax setting - budget debate
- Sutton Plan agreed
- National Budget?
- Lyons Review announced?

April
-Scotland, Wales and Local Elections outside London

May
-Scotland, Wales and Local Elections outside London
-Labour Leadership Campaign?
- Citizen and Safety Centre agreed?

June
-Labour Leadership Campaign?

July
-Labour Leadership Campaign?
-Comprehensive Spending Review announced?

August
September
-Lib Dem Conference
-Labour Conference

October
-Conservative Conference

November
-Queens Speech?

December
-Mid-year national budget review?
-Local Government Settlement

Lorraine Clifton Leaves Epsom and St Helier

The news that Lorraine Clifton is leaving is no great surprise, however I will be sad to see her go as she was always willing to answer questions on the Epsom and St Helier Trust, even if she gave answers that some people did not like.

Better Health Care Closer to Home (BHCH) in its big bang of 1 CCH and 10 LCH's has been dead since the beginning of 2006. What we are now seeing is a much slower process in a number of directions. Much of this at community level is actually quite sensible and evolutionary, however there are still some uncertainties. A plausible current situation is:

1. A rapid downgrade of Epsom with maternity transferred to St Helier in 2007. Some of the site is likely to be used for intermediate care and elective treatment as well as other elderly care with possibly some housing on the site. I suspect the Denbies bid to privatise the site will fail.

2. A slower downgrade of St Helier with an expanded maternity unit offset by ward closures, and some urgent cases going off to St Georges

3. A last ditch attempt to develop a small CCH (30-50 patients a day) in the longer-term at the Royal Marsden site. We will know whether this is realistic when the London Review is announced in February. If this fails, Royal Marsden may simply purchase the Sutton General site for a larger specialism in the longer term.

4. Intermediate Care at Carshalton War Memorial site as Sutton Council gets rid of Bawtree, Ludlow and Franklin House, only keeping Oakleigh for the present.

5. Mental Health leaving the Sutton General site and being shoehorned into newly closed general wards at St Helier.

6. A Local Care Centre at Wallington, supplemented by new clinics at Robin Hood Lane, Middelton Circle and at Roundshaw.

Once we know the result of the February London Review we will know whether all the above is happening. Maybe Lorraine's leaving was sensibly timed in advance of the likely results of that.

Dispersal Zones in Sutton

I am pleased to see the Council now support these. Labour Councillors argued for them in Carhsalton and Closkhouse Area in 2005, but when I raised the issue at Strategy Committee, Lord Tope opposed them as unecessary.

They are not an infringement on civil liberties as there very strict controld over the use of them.

Surely he has got over his time spent in a Czechoslovak prison cell by now!!:-)

Ken's Transport Money

I think that Colin Hall was a bit ungracious (Sutton Guardian page 4, 28 December) to Ken Livingstone over the £4.5 million Sutton has hjust received from the GLA on top of the £5 million we got from Ken in October.

I vaguely recall that quite a few more people voted for Ken than Colin. If Colin has a problem no doubt Lord Tope and his Lib Dem colleages in the London Assembly can raise their concerns.

I am sure Colin doesn't think we should go back to the bad old days when much less money was allocated to us by Civil Servants in the Department of Transport!!

Next we will here cheap shots from the Lib Dems attacking the Londoner magazine whilst defending themselves from Tory attacks on Sutton Scene magazine. Not very consistent?? As is well known I consistently support the provsion of both publications as well as the publications produced Tory controlled Croydon and Merton Councils.

Private Sector Costs More in Local Government!!

Do you remember the 1980's when lowest price privatisation was the panacea for local government.

Isn't it ironic that the Local Government Association is currently blaming 5% Council Tax rises on the cost of private contractors!! See the front page of today's Times for more details.

Whilst some of the cost is down to extra Risk management issues, much of the problem is that there is very little market competition in many areas and this is unlikely to change in the medium term as it would probably require a substantial increase in investment in local authority financed companies and social enterprises to create such a market as it is much too complex an area for private entrepreneurs to attempt to break into.

St Helier Hospital Petition

The following is a useful public "note for the record" on the future of St Helier Hospital in view of this Blog's role as a local journal of record.

The wording of the save St Helier Hospital petition on page 9 of the December 14 2006 Sutton Guardian says:

"that St Helier Hospital is able to continue to offer the full range of services available for accident and emergency".

I am pleased that local MP's are supporting this specific wording. In addition, I am glad that the Leader of the Council also spoke at the rally in support of the campaign that this petition adds to.

This strengthens the case of St Helier within this borough, against any proposal from the Royal Marsden Doctor's London Review for a reduced CCH at the Sutton General site.

Sutton Council Capital Programme - 2007-10

Just a few quick comments on this document which is also out for public consultation at present.

1. General
I welcome the fact the key items are up for consultation. I argued for public consultation of the capital programme many years ago and welcome this move forward.

2. Citizenship and Lifeskills Centre
I will comment on this elsewhere, but in principle it sounds good.

3. Voluntary Sector Hub
The proposal for 29/31 West Street is a good one.

4. Leisure Facilities
Westcroft probably needs a rebuild whilst Malden Road baths could later become a joint health and leisure facility.

5. Cultural Facility
I assume this means the Secombe is sold and a new facility is built as part of a development in the High Street. What will happen to Charles Cryer and Wallington Hall? How about rebuilding Wallington as a serious Theatre and attempting to attract the Tramshed Theatre from Croydon to it?

Sutton Plan 2007-2010

Some inital comments on this document, which is out for consultation and will be approved in February.

1. General
In general it is a good document, with most items previously discussed by the Council, so there are few surprises. In some places it is a little repetitive, so it could be reduced in length. The document's analysis about change factors is spot on. It will be interesting to see how Councillors react to them. I suspect a bit of "Canute" politics here!

2. Scrutiny Process
It is good that Scrutiny Co-ordinating Committee will comment on the document first. Will Tory Councillors demonstrate they take scutiny seriously by setting out their views on the Council's priorities either there or at full Council through a considered amendment?

3. Children and Learning
a) The rebuilding of Stanley Park High School by 2010 sounds quite tight to me and makes me wonder whether it is most likely to be rebuilt on its current site?
b) The new Citizenship and Lifeskills Centre sounds good. I will comment in more detail through the budget process and in a separate posting.
c) The refocusing of Play services on children's centres and extended schools will not necessariily increase choice unless the Council builds capcity for other providers. The Council is thus missing a longer-term opportunity here.

4. Economic Regeneration
Sutton's Town Centre has declined from 5th to 8th because we have significantly restricted the expansion of the night time economy. Ken's £4.5 million is that the next stage for the twon centre is one of high density housing above retail developments as we see private sector regeneration of the town centre with no increase in retail, but a younger commuting population living in its centre.

5. Community Engagement.
Despite all the talk about localism, the document is essentially awaiting for the White Paper and is not suggesting any specifically local ideas for expanded community engagement. Maybe some of us will have to prepare a petition for a parish in the borough to shake things up? Instead what we get is "Corporate Engagement" which sounds very "top down" and "broadcast" rather than "two-way".

6. Health and Social Care
An integrated Health and Social Care agenda seems to be a long-way off those this is because it probably needs the PCT to take the lead and it is still in transition. I suspect this area will need some revision in 2008/9.

Citizenship and Lifeskills Centre

I understand there are plans to develop Centre 21 Youth Centre at the junction of Sutton Common Road and Sutton By-pass as a Citizenship and Lifeskills Centre.

This sounds a really good idea to bring together the work the Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNT), Fire Service and the Youth Service in a closer partnership.

Since we established the Police SNT teams it has been my view that they and the neighbourhood wardens do a lot of informal detached youth work and we should be recognising this innovative partnership more formally.

The budget implications of this could make this controversial, however the principle is a good one and I look forward to hearing more about the scheme.

The Future of the Parks Police

The review of the Parks Police in the light of the new SNT teams is reasonable.
What is not reasonable is putting an assumed saving in the budget process, which prejudges the review process.

I am sure the Police Consultative Committee will want an explanation of the review process.

This is also an opportunity for the Tory Group to request a proper scrutiny on the current service.

This makes sense as in a future budget process we may hear that the Neighbourhood Warden service, which is nowadays targeted at quality of life issues and young people in the wards with the highest crime rates, is also being reviewed for a budget saving.

Maybe some one should ask about this?

The History of CEI

Interesting to note that the Lib Dems want to cut the Centre for Environemental Initiatives (CEI) budget from £27,000 to £5,000 a year.

In the past the Labour Group would have opposed this, so it will be interesting to see whether this budget proposal is enacted this time.

In many ways the CEI is more of a national body these days which happens to be based in Sutton.

It was originally set up in 1987 in a local green activists front room in Sutton West Ward and has had a Sutton grant since.

It also now occupies a Council property that the Council can't dispose of due to an historic landlord issue with an adjoining property.

Whether this justifies the £27,000 grant is a matter for CEI to argue and lobby for. It may be that its grant funding from other bodies means it has moved on from its originla role?

Sutton Council Budget Consultation 2007/08

Below is a brief analysis of the Council Budget. For a full commentary on every single budget item go to my Policy4Sutton website: http://policy4sutton.blogspot.com/

Some initial points:

1. Despite all the hype, the level of grant, whilst tight, was in line with expectations. Sutton is a quarter of a billion pound local authority and has seen its budget increase from £134 million in 1997 to over a £250 million. An increase of £116 million in the last 10 years is well above inflation!

2. The extra ASD spending is a legitimate cost to the Dedicated Schools Grant and will impact on schools. However there are some opportunities for schools as well in this process.

3. Sutton Council Tax may well rise about 3.5% as the Lib Dems won't want to go too high with a Tory opposition going on about this single thing, without putting an alternative budget forward.

4. The GLA Precept will not go above 5% this year or next. Most extra GLA money is likely to go on extra Policing.

5. There are no proposed growth items at this stage, but look out for the overall level of contingency and balances to see how much flexibility the Council has. In the last two years, this sum has risen to nearly £10 million unallocated at the start of the financial year.

6. Below are some early issues I would express some concern over:

Adult Social Services & Housing

2 Review Provision of Home Care Services
This will reduce the percentage provided "in-house". Councillors may wish to ask what the percentage reduction is compared to this year and over the last 5 years?

Chief Executive's Group

3 Review Grants to Voluntary Organisations
a) Even though the CAB shafted their St Helier service to keep North Cheam bureau, I would still defend their need for their current grant. Maybe the CAB will now shaft North Cheam too?
b) I suspect even the Tories might think spending some money on the SREC makes sense when the BNP got over 500 votes in St Helier and was leafleting Carshalton Central?

4 Restructure Safer Sutton Partnership Service
It would nice to have a debate and some scrutiny about the issue of Parks Police, rather than assume a blank cheque of a £132,000 saving at this stage! Will it be the Neighbourhood Wardens turn next?

Children, Young People & Learning Services

1 Review Play Service / Early Years Provision
Some of this was flagged up last year. I recall talking to Leslie Coman about it. Some ideas make practical sense, however thedanger with some of these proposals, especially the Grange, is they assume the new Childrens centres and Extended Schools will provide a full alternative, when the Council should be using its ability to subsidide to build capacity and choice into this quasi-market.

2 Review of Youth Service
Is Club Constellation being sold off and a new base being created at Centre 21 from the capital proceeds? The Centre 21 concept sound good, but its financing might be controversial?

Environment & Leisure

1 Increase Charge for Pavement Crossing for Car Access
This is arguably discriminatory to the less well off areas of the borough with less off-street parking, who mainly have Lib Dem Councillors!! A bit tactically stupid really?

2 Review Charges for Waste Management Services
a) The charge for replacement wheelie bins could see "bin snatching" in some areas. Not very sensible.
b) The charge for disposal of fridges and bulky items is outrageous and will increase fly-tipping.

3 Review Waste Management Services
a) No doubt the great and good in the local green movement will lobby to keep the adopt a bank scheme. It doesn't seem a lot to spend on extra community engagement?
b) The ceasing of the glass collection will not be popular. I think bottles should go in the green bins ASAP for all areas.
c) I think we should have more details on unauthorised use. Don't we have CCTV on the site?
d) Any changes to the wheelie bin collection should in terms of less going in the brown bins should be piloted in three areas first.

Resources

10 Review Charging for Residents' Visitors' Parking Vouchers
Perhaps there should be some consultation on this significant change?

Will the Tories vote against extra Allowances for themselves?

I will in the next month start costing Tory budget proposals. In the absence of any Tory budget, we currently have to assume that they will raise again the Council's media department even though the Lib Dems are likely to cut costs here.

The other area is allowances and the Lib Dems are again likely to propose cutting costs.
However I suspect the Lib Dems will announce that they are sacrifising some of their SRA allowances and offering two options:

1. The money to be added to the budget reductions

2. The money to be offered to the Tory Group with extra money proposed for the Tory Deputy Leader.

As the Libs Dems are likely to ensure there is a separate vote on this issue, it should be entertaining watching Peter Geiringer voting down his own substantial allowance increase, bearing in mind he always supported his post getting extra money!!

Roundshaw Votes Yes - But its Closer than expected!

Sutton Council tenants on Roundshaw on a 60% turnout voted by 59%-41% to transfer to Roundshaw Homes.

Whilst the result was expected:

1. The percentages were much closer than expected.

2. Leaseholders voted 56%-44% against transferring, even though this doe not impact legally on the overall result.

As a resullt of this we probably have now seen a win-win situation emerge:

1. Roundshaw residents get £15 million poun investment over the next 5 years.

2. The result kills any future attempt to try to stock transfer the rest of the Sutton stock as the other 7,500 properties would probably vote about 60%-40% against a transfer.

3. The ALMO gets the long-term stability it needs to improve its performance to secure future investment, with possibly the scope to borrow in its own right in due course.

4. We have now completed the housing options process that started in 2003/4.

Older People's Mental Health Beds

Health Scrutiny looked at this earlier in the month. A few quick points:

1. We are likely to see less beds than are currently at Malvern Ward at Sutton Hospital and at Franklin House. Instead of 34 Continuing Care beds and 6 Respite beds there will be 24 Continuing Care beds including 6 Respite beds.

2. The options have been reduced from 5 to 3, effectively proposing the closure of Malvern Ward:

Option 2 - Provide NHS managed continuing care beds and Challenging Behaviour Unit at Franklin House. I suspect the NHS and Council will not want this.

Option 4 - NHS managed beds at another facility. Funnily enough St Helier Hospital is about to get tid of 2 beds and close 6 wards. They will have the space. This could be used as the thin end of the wedge to downgrade St Helier Hospital and transfer more mental health services to it. Alternatively Epsom Hospital may be chosen as the site, however that is much further away.

Option 5 - Continuing Care beds commissioned from independent sector. I suspect this will take too long to procure to save money.

I suspect the next option appraisal will reduce this down to Options 4 and 5 with 4 being agreed with 5 as a fallback.

Thus we could intermediate care at Carshalton War Memorial, mental health developing at St Helier and perhaps a local care centre at Wallington. Maybe in February the Royal Marsden Doctors London Review will suggest a small (30-50 patient a day) CCH at the Royal Marsden site.

MP's Meeting up?

The Sutton Post says that local Sutton and Epsom MP's will be meeting in the new year to discuss health campaign tactics.

It is good to hear of this new-found local unity, but it may not last if a much reduced Sutton General CCH option is raised in the Royal Marsden Doctor's London Hospitals review in February.

Then I see the Epsom MP and some elements on Sutton Council supporting that option against the public views of the two Sutton MP's.

Bedzed - A Failure??

The Sutton Post recently reported on a number of problems at Bedzed relating to energy production and waste disposal that mean it is not yet a zero-carbon facility. Also not all residents are taking part in al its schemes.

Below are a few other issues also affecting it.

1. It was very expensive to build for Peabody Homes, which led to controversy in the housing press.

2. Some of the entrances do seem to be almost designed for young people to hang about in the dark areas and thus is suffers from increased anti-social behaviour. At a time when we are demolishing some estates like Durand for exactly this reason, it is suffering the same issues. Since the whole aim was to integrate it into the surrounding community, rather than it become an almost gated eco "intentional community", it is facing challenges that other non gated and non entry-phoned flatted areas face.

The whole point of Bedzed was to be an experiment. In any such experiment there are bound to be failures as well as successes - and there are many successes at the development in terms of developing a thriving and engaged community. The key point is to learn from the failure and to promost the successes.

Sutton Arena Security

The cost of the Sutton Arena fence is being reviewed by a working party. Conservative Councillors have welcomed this review.

If the work can be done cheaper, then that is fine, but we do need improved security at the facility after the recent fire.

I hope that is the eventual outcome of this debate.

Recent Planning Issues

I did not comment on December's Development Control Committee in advance, but I should note two items for the record:

1. Good to see the Sutton Cemetery Mortuary is becoming a Museum Store. Hopefully this will lead to the Heritage Centre moving to free admission sometime in 2007/08. This would bring Sutton in line with the rest of London after 20 years.

2. The new fence for the St Helier open space is ggod.If they have any money spare, perhaps Thomas Wall Park can be looked at too.

The benefit of Museums

A report by the LSE's Tony Travers referred to by the national Guardian on 14 December says that museums:

1. Add £1.5 billion to the UK economy.

2. Are the glue that binds communities together

3. Were visited by 43% of the British public in the last year.

These are all good reasons why we should double attendance at our own local Heritage centre in Carshalton by scrapping admission charges and bring ourselves into line with the rest of London boroughs that have free admission.

Out of Town in Woodcote?

In the run-up to Christmas, I went shopping in Woodcote Green Nurseries in Carshalton South and Clockhouse ward.

Whilst it is clearly a garden centre, nevertheless one could see elsewhere that with an expanding range of outdoor leisure products we could see souped up garden centres being a way to create out of town shopping centres by stealth.

This may be a future planning policy issue.

Kimpton Park Way - Popular with residents

I am pleased to see that residents in Gander Green Lane have written in to the letters page to the Guardian to say that they are pleased with the Kimpton estate access road, now called Kimpton Park Way.

This could have been an A217/A24 Link Road, generating more traffic, however after an 8 year campaign led by Councillor John Morgan, the Link Road was rejected by a Government Inspectors and the Council then accepted the Access Road proposal instead.

Protaganists for the Link Road, such as Julian Freeman, Edward Trevor and Ruth Shaw have now left the Council, with the only early supporter left being Lord Tope, but he is far too sensibly pragmatic to reopen the issue.

Whilst I suspect some on the estate might not like this, there was considerable all-party support on the Council to block off Kimpton Road to benefit residents.

All the above shows that long-term campaigning pays off.

Peter Geiringer Takes the Biscuit!!

Its outrageous how local residents could criticise Peter Geiringer in the letters page of the Sutton Guardian for his choice of biscuits.

Councillor Geirnger is a stout man of some importance and deserves to have the finest biscuits and an appropriate allowance to enable him to carry out his representative duties!

Post Office - More Closures

The proposed loss of 2000 Post Offices, poses the question what is the balance between the state and market in determining the level of a service.

I know I use the Post Office much less in the 7 years I have had internet access.

We know that many younger people use the service less. At the same time many elderly people still want to use the service.

This strikes me as an opportunity to practice localism:

1. The government should allow Council's to add a post office precept to the Council Tax to subsidise retention of extra services above a national minimum. We would then know how much a priority local politicians attached to this service. I suspect it will be less than some imagine?

2. Council's could then also include post office services in their libraries, which might then strengthen use of both services

3. Council's should promote post office services such as the way you can pay all your household bills at the post office. Maybe there should be an article in Sutton Scene promoting the use of the post office under the theme of "use it, or lose it!"

Year Zero for the Council Press Office!!

Interesting to to see that Councillor Pickles in a recent Sutton Guardian letter wants to substantially cut the comunications department in Sutton Council and get rid of Sutton Scene magazine.

Perhaps he should talk to Tory colleagues in Surrey, Merton and Croydon, all who have continued large communications departments and have successful Council magazines!

Super Hospitals - The impact locally

The recent Alberti and Boyle reports on "Super hospitals" are part of of an ongoing debate about large hospitals versus smaller acute hospitals (ie those with between 150,000-300,000 - such as the old Epsom Care Trust). A few points to remember in this debate.

1. The current Epsom and St Helier Trust catchment area of 500,000 is in line with Royal College guidance. I always thought it was best to have services provied at both St Helier and Epsom, but even with main A&E services provided at St Helier, the Trust is in line with the 500,000 requirement.

2. There is an evolving change between the level of highly specialist operations and the rest. Inevitably there will be some change through the evolution is in medical and working practices. The crucial thing is to keep campaigning for the future of St Helier Hospital as a major site. The recent march assisted with this.

However as exclusively was reported in a recent post, it is possible that Professor Darzi from the Royal Marsden in his London-wide role may hold the fate of St Helier Hospital in his hands??

Barker Review on Planning Policy

The Barker Review on Planning Policy has a number of impacts on Sutton:

1. Our local Green Belt, though small could come under increased pressure. Most of it is either smallholding or golf courses, so may become an area seen as lucrative.

2. An Independent Planning Commisuison for big projects is unlikely to affect Sutton and seems to make sense to progress the very small number of very large projects.

3. A 50% reduction in ministerial call-ins is welcome, but unlikely to be significant due to small Sutton sites and the fact his power is exercised by the Mayor who is focussed on 200 sites, none of which are likely to be in Sutton.

4. Quicker Local Development Frameworks. This is good and will save Councils like Sutton some money.

5. Less planning bureacracy on agreed conservatories and loft conversions between neihghbours is welcome, but will many agree?

6. Speeding appeals up to 6 months or less is good as it reduces uncertainty and planning blight.

7. Less bureacracy on business planning applications. This is welcome, but I could see it as being contentious in suburban Sutton

Pre-Budget Report

The Pre-Budget Report had the following impacts on Sutton:

1. Climate Change
a) The zero stamp duty for new green houses is likely to have little impact as Sutton's planned 325 new properties a year is rather low.
b) Increased fuel dutues is likely to impact on high car ownership/high school rum Sutton more than most London boroughs.
c) It is hard to tell whether the cost of short-haul flights will have more impact in Sutton, but demographically I would suspect it would.

2. Education
Increased spending is to be welcomed. Hopefully there will be less whinging about the Dedicated Schools Budget which ensures the money goes to schools. Education is the boroughs biggest services and deserves a clearly spelt out budget. The spending on rebuilding schools means that Carshalton Boys and Carshalton Girls are likely to be refurbished in the next 5 or so years.

3. Public Service Reform
The new budget for voluntary groups to bid to take over assets could be used to protect them from future asset stripping by the Council.

4. Local Government Finance
The further delay in the Lyons Report is no surprise as little is currently expected from it. A combination of capping, extra and/or regional Council Tax bands with and expansion of the BIDs system for regenerating specific areas with the support of business is still the most likely options.

5. Planning
I will cover this in a separate posting

6. Housing
The cut-price mortgage scheme is welcome and should be of benefit to Sutton residents. Whilst Sutton is remarkably in the bottom half of London boroughs for average house price, this is because most inner London boroughs are remarkably skewed between million pound houses and a cheaper end of the market. In Sutton the average is for a much narrower band of prices thus the bottom end of the market is relatively small for first time buyers. Thus the scheme may be of benefit.

Will Professor Darzi back the Sutton Hospital site??

If you read page two of todays (11 December) Evening Standard you will see that a certain Professor Sir Ara Darzi, with big connections to the Royal Marsden is being asked to lead the London Hospitals review.

Surely he has a significant interest over the future of St Helier Hospital in view of the current support for the Royal Marsden for a shift of services to the Sutton General site.

Perhaps local MP's might want to question this?

Council Meeting

I wasn't able to go the meeting tonight due to two other events on. I hope to have a report on it soon.

Thank You

Just to note thanks to those of you that read this Blog, that if you now type the words "Sutton Council" into Google, this Blog appears on page 1 in 9th position out of 43,000 web page references to the word.

Thank you. Speaking to a few people recently I know the Blog is read at regional level by those who want to know what is going on in Sutton.

Once again thank you!

Emails and Surgeries - December Survey

Just to report that as of today:

1. Wandle Valley Councillors do not hold a surgery

2. None of the Wrythe Ward Councillors have a public email address.

It was complacency like this that cost the Tories their majority in 1986!! In the Wandle they could latch on to Tom Brake's 2 surgeries in the ward and the Wrythe Councillors could easily publish an email address that forwards to the MP or a colleague!

What is the Lib Dem political assistant doing if they can't sort this out for them!!

An update will be published in January.

A 5 Million cut for a Quarter of a Billion Pound Council!!

On Friday the Chief Executive sent a letter to staff telling them of a 5 million potential cut in budget in a quarter of a billion pound Council. In other words the Council would be seeking 2% efficiencies for next year.

Of course this will be hyped up to "crisis" caused for the benefit of the local press over the next two months. Then in February lo and behold we will be told it wasn't quite so bad.

I just think we should save a bit of time and look at what likely efficiciencies we need to achieve a 2% reduction.

I will be commenting on the budget in coming posts and in February I will publish an alternative budget covering changes for about 2% of the budget. In the meantime I welcome suggestions and comments.

Council Meeting - 11 December - Preview

So far the main item on the Agenda is a very reasonable motion from Councillor Eric Howell on Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour. Unlike some of the sensationalist stuff from the Tories in the previous Council I would certainly vote for it. If I were the Lib Dems, I wouldn't even seek to amend it but to simply support it. Alternatively, I would add an amendment at the end that set out some key points from the Crime and Disorder Strategy.

So far I am not aware of any items from today's Strategy that will be heading to Council except Council Tax Base which has to, but Sutton Arena Security might be one.

A larger Carshalton Forum

I note from the minutes of this that they are looking to expand to cover Carshalton South and Clockhouse.

I hope this is agreed as it would mean all paerts of the Carshalton Area Commmittee would have a local Forum. This would put it ahead of the other areas as the following parts are not covered:

Cheam and Worcester Park
- Cheam and South Cheam - may be a budget bid from the Tory controlled Area to fund this?

Sutton Area
No local Forums

Beddington and Wallington
- Beddington

Carshalton Area was the first to have a Neighbourhood Forum and will become the first to cover the entire Area.

Carshalton and Clockhouse Area - 6 December

A few extra points:

Item 7 - Rosehill Section 106

Hopefully Councillors will keep up the pressure for the 22,000.


Item 12 - Play Facilities

Good to see that the Council has no u-turned on playgrounds and is starting to re-invest. How did Lib Dem Councillors ever agree to cutting back in the first place. Labour Councillors did warn them at the time.

Health Scrutiny - 7 December

Just read the agenda for this. A little surprised it is is not covering the Trust Financial Recovery Strategy considering that Surrey has called for formal consultation. This rather than a joint committee meeting is far more important.

Other points on the agenda:


5. Bereavement Services

Interesting to hear Ruth Dombey's report back. This is a sad end to a service that used to be funded partly by the Council, so lets hope something can be salvaged for the new incapacity led services.


6. Clinically Effective Commissioning

This is actually very important, so I hope Councillors take as much interest as officers will be. As well as being clinically effective, such commissioning also has to be publicly accountable. There will of course be clashes between these objectives from time to time, but that all part of a democratic process.

Roundshaw

The ballot has started and will close on 18 December. The choice 630 Roundshaw households face is as follows:

A yes vote will be to join Roundshaw Homes - the joint Housing Association partnership between Metropolitan and Hyde Homes that already owns the majority of Roundshaw. They are proposing to invest £15 million pouns over the next few years on local environmental and security Improvements as Roundshaw properties already meet Decent Homes standard.

A no vote will lead to them being part of Sutton Housing Partnership, the Council's ALMO.

At present I would expect a majority in favour of a yes vote, however some residents have circulated literature expressing concern over the transfer, which the Council have responded to so the result may be a bit closer than the earlier polling which predicted an 85% vote in favour.

Acute Trust Finances

The Epsom and St Helier Trust Finaical Recovery strategy is likely to lead to the following:

1. Clinical Issues
a) Reduction in Beds by 141-171
b) Close 6 wards
c) Closure of Theatres at Sutton Hospital and Nelson
d) Reduce Elderly length of Stay

2. Non Clinical
a) Rationalisation of admin staff

I will report further on this as specific proposals arise.

Queen's Speech

I was away and missed commenting on this, but the legislation proposed will affect Sutton a little:

1. Local Government Bill
The ability to create parishes will strengthen Area Committee Powers to head off local demand for parishes.

2. GLA Bill
This will create better stretgic decision making over developing housing. Mayoral planning powers will not strongly impact on Sutton, despite the scare-mongering. Our sites are just too small!

Rosehill Section 106 Money.

I was pleased to see this issue was discussed at the Northern Ward Forum.

We should celebrate the changes we have made in the last12 months:

1. The amount lost to Rosehill has been reduced from £50,000 to £22,000. I suspect we get this back at some stage. Thus I do not beleive we should hold up the spending of the money we do have.

2. I think the plans for marketing the Rosehill area are pretty good.

3. There is a commitment to consulting the residents association (Four Square) and the Northern Wards Forum on the spending.

Well done. I think we will eventually get the remaining money!

Licensing in Sutton

As we know the world didn't end, with the new licencing rules. We know they work.

If you go to any European town at this time of year, you can sit outside in the cold and drink and enjoy the Christmas decorations. I have recently come back from Strasbourg and it was nice to do this in the winter sunshine.

However, despite Sutton priding itself on its cafe society, licencing regulationd mean our pubs are licenced from April to September.

I hope this issue is reviewed, so we can enjoy winter cafe society!

Stanley Park - an Academy??

You may be awre of the following:

1. The government now wants 400 Academies instead of 200 and 100 of these would be in London.

2. Stanley Park High, which is rebuilding may apply for extra money from the DFES to become 8 forms of entry instead of 6.

Will the DFES want Stanley Park to become an Academy for the extra money. I understand the Governors do not want to go along this route, so will the secure the extra money? If they don't, I suspect rebuild on the current site will remain the favourite option.

Maternity Option 3 - the new Favourite

Having watched the Epsom and St Helier Trust Board meeting on Friday, I would now say o9ption 3 for Midwife led units at both sites (see details on the posting below) is now the favourite.

I did point out to Joan Mulcaster of the Post, who was at the meeting that Epsom suffers from a maternity perspective because the borough has quite a very high abortion rate compared to the Merton and Sutton area, most probably for economic reasons. I suspect this point will not feature in the Post's coverage of this issue.

It is interesting to note that the 1000 plus homes in the "Epsom Cluster" are not generating many extra births as many of the homes are for established successful families who already have children and the affordable accomodation on the sites is mainly flats, so also does not generate many births.

Watch out for the Tiny Critical Care Hospital!!

The Epsom and St Helier Trust Board which met on Friday, is continuing the review of BHCH.

The latest idea is for a smaller Critical Care Hospital. This would be smaller than the 50 patients a day proposal of the past. Based on the current turnaround plan, I would assume they are looking for 35-40 patients a day at best.

I suspect the London NHS, which will take the decision this time, is likely to say that it is still to expensive to fund. The Secretary of State speech of 11 October (see earlier posts for the text) confirms this reality. Locally any extra money is likely to go to community facilities (intermediate care, Local Care Hospital at Wallington etc) rather than on a grandiose acute scheme.

In the end any change of services on the Sutton General site is likely to be led by the Royal Marsden as it expands its critical care facilities (eg a 10 bed unit). The only other way to fund redevelopment of the Sutton site would be if the Denbies Vinyard owner is allowed to privatise the Epsom Hospital site with his £66 million bid. This would require Secretary of State approval.

Locally, the level of acute services will be determined by commissioning decisions made by the PCT, working more closely with the local authority as they develop community and intermediate services as I have already mentioned in previous postings. I think this is a good idea as it is more locally accountable and Loraine Clifton agreed at the Board meeting that this was inevitable. The Epsom and St Helier Trust will increasingly have a landlord role for a range of services on their sites.